Something funny about search engines

[c1vineoflife]

Does anyone else think this is funny:

With a search for "search engine":

On googe: Lycos, AltaVista and Dogpile rank higher than google.
On AltaVista: Google, Search.com, Yahoo, and Dogpile rank higher than AltaVista
On Dogpile: Google and Mamma.com rank higher than dogpile.
On Search.com: Google, Dogpile, AltaVista, Lycos and Yahoo rank higher than Search.com
On Mamma.com: Dogpile, Google, AltaVista, Lycos, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Search.com rank higher than Mamma.com

I think that is quite funny

[Hierophant]

If someone is searching on your search engine site, you already have their traffic so your rank is irrelevant.

[c1vineoflife]

If someone is searching on your search engine site, you already have their traffic so your rank is irrelevant.

I know, but then they wouldnt need to have their own site in the search resulsts at all, which they do. Meh, just though it was kinda funny.

[mmj]

On googe: Lycos, AltaVista and Dogpile rank higher than google.
On AltaVista: Google, Search.com, Yahoo, and Dogpile rank higher than AltaVista
On Dogpile: Google and Mamma.com rank higher than dogpile.
On Search.com: Google, Dogpile, AltaVista, Lycos and Yahoo rank higher than Search.com
On Mamma.com: Dogpile, Google, AltaVista, Lycos, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Search.com rank higher than Mamma.com

I think that is quite funny

There's a logical reason behind it.

The one interesting result above is that of Google when searched on Google. The other results are to be expected - obviously Google is a much more popular search engine than all the others. Google is the defacto standard for search, so much so that people don't think of it as a 'search engine', they just think of it as either 'Google', or 'that thing I use when I want to find something'. The google brand is so strong that people don't even need to call it a search engine, and many people who use it don't even know what a search engine is.

It is much like when you do a search for "browser" or "web browser", mozilla comes up higher that Internet Explorer consistently. Because Internet Explorer is so widely used by many people who don't even realise there are alternatives, people do not think of it as a web browser. The "Internet Explorer" branding is so strong that many people just think of "internet explorer" as the way you use the web. Many people do not know what a browser is.

Here's another example. Do a search for "adhesive bandage". band-aid.com does not come up as the first result, because the Band-Aid brand is so strong people do not think of Band-Aid as an adhesive bandage.

Do a search for "cola drink". coca-cola.com comes up as the 8th result, and it is not even their front page.

Do a search for "hamburger restaurant". mcdonalds.com only comes up 14th, and it's not their front page. Wendy's comes up 6th.

People think of these products by their brand name, rather than the type of product, due to the success of the brand name. It's therefore no surprise that mcdonalds.com comes up first for a search on McDonalds, and google.com comes up first for a search on Google.

[truelysam]

If someone is searching on your search engine site, you already have their traffic so your rank is irrelevant.

good point